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TI-2025-26573 Aliases CVE-2025-39901GHSA-xm78-498q-x929

i40e: remove read access to debugfs files

Priority LOW 30CWE-125Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i40e: remove read access to debugfs files The 'command' and 'netdev_ops' debugfs files are a legacy debugging interface supported by the i40e driver since its early days by commit 02e9c290814c ("i40e: debugfs interface"). Both of these debugfs files provide a read handler which is mostly useless, and which is implemented with questionable logic. They both use a static 256 byte buffer which is initialized to the empty string. In the case of the 'command' file this buffer is literally never used and simply wastes space. In the case of the 'netdev_ops' file, the last command written is saved here. On read, the files contents are presented as the name of the device followed by a colon and then the contents of their respective static buffer. For 'command' this will always be "<device>: ". For 'netdev_ops', this will be "<device>: <last command written>". But note the buffer is shared between all devices operated by this module. At best, it is mostly meaningless information, and at worse it could be accessed simultaneously as there doesn't appear to be any locking mechanism. We have also recently received multiple reports for both read functions about their use of snprintf and potential overflow that could result in reading arbitrary kernel memory. For the 'command' file, this is definitely impossible, since the static buffer is always zero and never written to. For the 'netdev_ops' file, it does appear to be possible, if the user carefully crafts the command input, it will be copied into the buffer, which could be large enough to cause snprintf to truncate, which then causes the copy_to_user to read beyond the length of the buffer allocated by kzalloc. A minimal fix would be to replace snprintf() with scnprintf() which would cap the return to the number of bytes written, preventing an overflow. A more involved fix would be to drop the mostly useless static buffers, saving 512 bytes and modifying the read functions to stop needing those as input. Instead, lets just completely drop the read access to these files. These are debug interfaces exposed as part of debugfs, and I don't believe that dropping read access will break any script, as the provided output is pretty useless. You can find the netdev name through other more standard interfaces, and the 'netdev_ops' interface can easily result in garbage if you issue simultaneous writes to multiple devices at once. In order to properly remove the i40e_dbg_netdev_ops_buf, we need to refactor its write function to avoid using the static buffer. Instead, use the same logic as the i40e_dbg_command_write, with an allocated buffer. Update the code to use this instead of the static buffer, and ensure we free the buffer on exit. This fixes simultaneous writes to 'netdev_ops' on multiple devices, and allows us to remove the now unused static buffer along with removing the read access.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00156 4th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.1.183, 6.6.148, 6.12.46 +2Red Hat: 4 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux3.12 and later6.1.183, 6.6.148, 6.12.46, 6.16.6, 6.17Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 3.12 and later Fixed in 6.1.183, 6.6.148, 6.12.46, 6.16.6, 6.17 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 5

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*3.12 to before 6.12.46; 6.13 to before 6.16.6VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*6.17 rc1VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*6.17 rc2VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*6.17 rc3VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*6.17 rc4VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 3.12 to before 6.12.46; 6.13 to before 6.16.6 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.17 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.17 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.17 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.17 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.183, 6.6.148, 6.12.46, 6.16.6, 6.17

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-39901
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-xm78-498q-x929

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources